One of the greatest beefs in recent NBA history was the fallout that Jimmy Butler had with the Minnesota Timberwolves organization, and in particular with his star teammates at the time, Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins.
Everyone remembers the story of the legendary practice in which Jimmy Butler beat the starters on the team with a bunch of scrimmage players. Butler then went on to force his way out of the organization, moving to the Philadelphia 76ers before eventually joining the Miami Heat.
The beef seemingly hadn’t died though, with Butler telling Towns in a recent Heat-Wolves match-up that he was “soft as baby-sh*t”. Towns has seemingly put the beef behind him though, expressing his admiration for Butler and talking about the time they made the playoffs together on his Karl Towns LIVE YouTube channel.
“Alright, clip it, I’ll say it. Thank you Jimmy, appreciate you. No matter that we didn’t see eye to eye, f**k it, we didn’t see eye to eye. But guess what, we don’t have to. We got the job done on the court. We gave the Wolves the chance to be in the playoffs, we did that. Thankful.”
“The league is what it is, but this is how I feel. When we went to the playoffs, that’s a time that I got to enjoy with my mother, with my father. One of the most iconic photos of my career that I will ever have is my mother and my father hugging me after winning the 82nd game against Denver. That’s irreplaceable. F**k all the character sh*t, that sh*t didn’t mean sh*t.”
Towns lost his mother in April 2020 due to complications caused by Covid-19, before losing further family members to the disease. It seems to have made him more contemplative and explains why he’s willing to bury the hatchet with Butler despite their many differences years ago.
Jimmy Butler is unlikely to mind now, having found his spot with the Miami Heat, with whom he has already been to the NBA finals. The Heat’s culture of hustling and defence seems to fit in with what Jimmy has always expected from his teammates.
